Sweet nothings: Sugar going out of stock

“We are contacting sugar co-operatives and lifting the stock directly from the warehouses. So far we have brought sugar from Shankarrao Mohite-Patil co-operative from Solapur and we are in touch with other co-operatives as well,” Vyas stated.

Ruling out any inconvenience to ration card holders, she said, “Ration card holders will be given two kilos of sugar this month per card in addition to the regular quota.” This additional sugar will be released from the imported sugar, she informed. About 56,321 quintals is released through the PDS every month.

Vyas said that the sugar lifted from the sugar co-operatives will be available to the people at Rs 16.50 per kg. The traders will be allowed to make a profit of a little over one rupee per kg which includes the transportation cost.

The Controller of Rationing assured that strict vigil is being maintained on traders trying to take advantage of the shortage. Vyas added that her department is conducting raids and have detected three cases of hoarding.

The government’s claims notwithstanding, PDS and provision shops in the city today maintained that they had not received sugar and stuck to their standard answer, “We have run out of sugar stock. It will be made available as and when we receive the supply.”

A salesman at Sarvodaya stores at Churchgate informed that their stock of sugar was over. “In the last couple of days about 25 per cent of our customers came only for sugar,” he said. Consumers had to return empty-handed as most of the shops sold sugar only to regular customers and rationed their supply to half to one kg to each family per week. Sandhya Giri, a provision shop-owner at Goregaon said, “We don’t want to disappoint our customers and this is the only way to ensure that all get a fair deal.” However, Tardeo resident Nari Patel complained that sugar was not freely available even for Rs 25 to Rs 30 per kg. “None of the shop-keepers in my locality are selling more than one kg of sugar at a time,” he said.

Madhavi Patel of Santacruz said, “Till today, even small-time panwallas stocked sugar but now everyone claims to have run out of their stocks and this is quite alarming.” Most of the shops in her locality have put up a board saying sugar stocks were over.

Superintendent of Sakhar Sangh, B P More, said the sugar traders were eagerly waiting for their stocks to be lifted since they are not permitted to sell except through licensed merchants. “If we do not release 47 per cent of the monthly quota released by the government of India within a fortnight, the process of re-validating the quota and related problems crop up,” he explained.